GitHub: Kotlin is now the fastest growing language

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Repository giant GitHub has revealed Kotlin for Android is now the fastest growing programming language in the world.

As the world’s largest Git repository host, GitHub has a fairly unique ability to discover notable changes in the developer landscape.

Last year, Google made Kotlin a ‘first-class’ language for Android in addition to existing support for Java and C++. GitHub’s findings show what an impact Google’s decision has had for Kotlin adoption.

Over the course of the past year, GitHub notes the number of contributors using Kotlin for projects has more than doubled.

Kotlin first appeared in 2011 so it’s not a ‘new’ language per se, although it’s positively fresh-out-the-oven compared to Java (1995) and C++ (1985). However, Google’s decision to support it on Android is the first time it’s received support for such a major platform.

While the syntax is not compatible with Java, the JVM implementation of the Kotlin standard library is designed to interoperate with Java code and is reliant on Java code from the existing Java Class Library, such as the collections framework.

According to GitHub’s findings, the next fastest growing language by number of contributors is TypeScript which is maintained by Microsoft. TypeScript grew 1.9 times over the past year.

Next up is PowerShell. Mozilla-designed Rust, cross-platform tool CMake, and Google’s language Go take the next three spots.

Finally, rounding out the top ten fastest growing on GitHub are Groovy and IBM's SQLPL.

Microsoft, who acquired GitHub earlier this year, remains the largest contributor on the platform overall. 7,700 Microsoft employees contribute to projects, compared to 5,500 contributors from next largest Google.

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Bessalitskykh
12 Mar 2019, 8:51 p.m.

Thanks a lot for writing this useful content!

Indeed, Kotlin provides new capabilities for Android development. It compiles to JVM bytecode and can easily be adopted without dropping off or having to rewrite an entire project.

The comparison of Kotlin vs. Java proved that Kotlin is more secure, more flexible, it provides more possibilities that help to reduce the number of lines written and, thus, fewer bugs and errors occur.

Follow this article https://mlsdev.com/blog/kotlin-vs-java to find out additional information about the differences between Kotlin and Java, and learn which language is better for Android development.

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